Early Verdict of Hannover Messe 2017? Absolutely Gripping!

More than 6,500 exhibitors are vying for attention at this year's Hannover Messe industrial technology trade fair. Here's what has caught ours after Day 1.

Hannover Messe is the world's leading industrial tech show, the equivalent to manufacturing's San Diego Comic Con, but with few to no attendees dressed as Sailor Moon. The industrial machines, though, are sometimes even crazier than what's appearing in the latest Hollywood sci-fi flicks. Have you seen Festo's OctopusGripper? What the holy frickin' future is going on?

Along with releasing the robo-kraken, the show has put the Internet of Things front and center. Europeans of course call it Industrie 4.0, but they also spell "color" with a "u" and think soccer is called football, so what can you do? Either way, more than 500 IoT applications are peppered throughout the enormous exhibition grounds.

We'll have a full wrap-up next month, but for now, these are the innovations that have excited our correspondent, Steve Minter, executive editor at IndustryWeek, so far.